World Cup Archives - Common Sense with Paul Jacob

“I am loving that the World Cup has brought to our shores all these people,” comedian Bill Maher told his Real Time audience on Friday, “who are doing Americans the service of reminding us — just when we needed it on our big 250 birthday — that actually this place is kind of awesome.”

What Maher celebrated could be seen on social media, mostly. One German fan — and the first many American X users have encountered — is @FreddyLA7; his success is instructive, saying that he hasn’t “met a single unfriendly person.” If you follow his account, or many others like his, you’ll see a lot of stadium shots and talk of soccer wins and losses, but the real gems are among the many about American culture, vistas, and (of course) the food.

And because the World Cup is being held in 16 cities across the continent, Freddy and his fellow across-the-water fans have seen a lot.

“I’m absolutely in love with small town America,” he says in a post about “Island Pond in Vermont. They have a population of 750 people but there was quite a lot going on. They had a flea market, a nice deli, and a beautiful lake with people out on their boats.”

His enthusiasm has hit the television news shows, too, one quoting his ten-out-of-ten rating of Waffle House, and his pledge to return.

Maher shared numerous stories from foreign visitors, including one Australian man who complained, “I feel like I’ve been lied to my entire life about America . . . if you log onto the news everything’s bad, everything’s terrible. It’s not. It’s absolutely f*cking amazing.”

Yes, the “news” is a problem — especially the national sources, biggest stations and papers. But bracket out politics. Then what you see is a diversity of geography, still-vibrant markets, and friendly people in cities, towns, and rural communities all over.

And the sneaking idea that America is still great.

Again.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Winners and Losers in Sports and Government

Sports excite because of the contest: There are winners and losers. But in making “big shows,” some promoters make losers of us all.

South Africa’s sticker price for hosting the World Cup was marked up past $4 billion to nearly $6 billion. The games generated fewer billions in revenue, but the taxpayers of South Africa, one-fourth of whom are out of work, will see little return on their massive investment.

So why would politicians want to “invest” only to lose?

They can’t resist the hoopla. They get to throw a big show with someone else’s bucks. And if some of the money they throw around reaches their pals’ businesses, all the better.

Around the world, governments vie to spend tax money like South Africa just did. In America, we have our city-funded/state-funded sports stadiums. And remember when our president flew across the globe to pitch for the Chicago Olympics?

Rather than soccer fans paying for soccer, baseball fans for baseball, etc., taxpayers support soccer at the expense of those who find the game tedious, baseball fans helped at the expense of opera lovers, etc.

But considering the wages paid to athletes and the profits made by team owners, these subsidies flow bigger not so much from fan to fan but from regular folks to the rich.

Governments are supposed to serve us all. It ruins the game when governments pick sides through subsidies. That way we all lose.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.